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A BIOGRAPHY
185
possession and rowed off. But hardly were they at a
little distance from the shore than a sentinel saw and
challenged them. For reply they rowed away with all
their might, and by good luck, owing to the
carelessness and dilatoriness of the sentinel, they reached the
opposite side, whence, unobserved, they slipped into
Paris. They thus chanced to arrive there at the very
commencement of the Commune.
Sonya had intended, later on, to publish her
experiences during this epoch, but, alas! like so many other
plans, this lies with her in the grave. Among other
things she intended to write a novel to be entitled
" The Sisters Raevsky under the Commune." 1 In it
she meant to describe a night with the
ambulance-corps, for she and Aniuta served in it. Here, too, they
found other young girls who had formerly moved in
their own circle in Petersburg.
While bombs were whizzing round them, and
wounded men were being constantly brought in, the
girls talked in whispers of their former experiences, so
unlike their present surroundings that they seemed to
them like a dream. And like a dream to Sonya, at
least,—like a fairy tale,—were all the strange incidents
which now pressed upon her. She was still at the age
of intense fervor of feeling, and the events of
worldwide historic interest that were taking place around her
impressed her more than the most exciting romance.
She watched the bursting bombs without the least
trepidation; they only excited a not unpleasant
fluttering of the heart and a secret delight that she was in
the very midst of the drama.
For her sister she could at this moment do nothing.
Aniuta took an active interest in the political
disturbances, and asked for nothing better than to risk her
1 Appendix B.
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